Transcript Prehistory-Ancient River Valleys

Prehistory & Ancient River
Valley Civilizations
Catal Huyuk - Çatalhöyük
Remains of a Neolithic town
 9,000 years ago, one of the world's largest
settlements.

Catal Huyuk
Çatal Hüyük, Southern Anatolia, Turkey - Neolithic,
from 6500 up to 5700 years BCE
Characteristics of Civilizations
 Cities
 Centralized
government, law codes,
organized religion
 System of writing
 Specialized jobs – Division of Labor
 Social Class Structure
 Advanced Technology
Four Early River Valleys
How did they become civilizations?
Neolithic Revolution – domestication of
plants & animals
 Organized Farming & village life
 Food Surplus was created led to
specialization of labor
 Growth in population
 Creation of complex socieites requiring
complex institutions which governed large
scale projects like irrigation

Population Growth & Development
of Civilizations





Iron Age = new farms tools = food surplus
Farming and Pastoral Nomads replaced huntergatherers
Domesticated animals = beasts of burden =
food surplus
Increased, healthier population living closer
together in new urban areas
Increased immunities based on close proximity
& better health
Population Growth & Development
of Civilizations
Cultural connections increased through
new trade routes
 Developments of empires
 Development of Writing systems to record
taxes to pay for expanded governments
 Development of great road building
projects to encourage trade, uniform
coinage, uniform weights & measurements
(Lydian's & Persians)

Early River Civilizations: EGYPT
3000BCE
 Egyptian Science and Technology
1. Irrigation – water from Nile
River (god) to grow wheat & other
foods
2. Preserving the human body
after death through mummification
3. Physicians diagnose illness &
perform brain & body surgery
Egyptian Science and
Technology
Accurate calendar
 Hieroglyphics: system of writing called
 Advanced mathematical geometry &
engineering skills in the creation of the
pyramids
 irrigation
systems

 Monarchy
– Kingdom/Empire
 Pharaoh God/King
 Dynasty – ruling family
EGYPT
 Polytheistic
 Advances in medicine, math, calendars,
irrigation, cosmetics, mummification,
building & architecture, pyramids, jewelry,
metal work
 Social Class Structure: Pharaoh,
Priest/Nobles, merchants/artisans (Middle
Class), peasants, slaves
Ancient Egypt
MESOPOTAMIA – FERTILE
CRESCENT
Sumerians 1st Civilization: 1st to build
wheeled vehicles - 3500 BCE
 built irrigation systems, dykes, and canals
for better farming
 Cuneiform system of writing – 1st
 Sumerian- algebra and geometry
 Sumerian: - city-states, Preist/Kings
polytheistic,

Fertile Crescent & Mesopotamia
Other Civilizations Fertile Crescent
astronomy, Code of
Hammurabi, was the first written
laws in history
 Hittites: first to mine iron ore to
produce iron weapons & tools (Iron
Age)
 Assyrians: new military equipment moveable towers and battering rams, 1st
library of cuneiform tablets, chariot
 Babylonians:
Other Civilizations Fertile Crescent
Code on
columns in
each city-state
Assyrian
weapons &
chariot
Other Civilizations Fertile Crescent
 Persians:
controlled empire Asia Minor to
India (to Indus River)
 Persians: divided empire into provinces,
governor called a satrap
 Taxes on resources and wealth
 Single code of laws for the empire
 Royal Roads to unify empire, common set
of weights & measures, single coinage
 Zoroastrian Religion – good & evil &
polytheistic faiths
Coins
Persian Empire
Royal Roads
Weights &
Measures
Other Civilizations Fertile Crescent

Phoenicians: Manufacturing and trade,
colonization around Mediterranean Sea, glass,
sea snail-purple dye (royal purple), phonetic
alphabet-22 letters
(adapted by
Greeks
and Romans)
Hebrews/Jews
 Hebrews:
Judaism - oldest known
monotheistic religion
 Founder-Abraham
 Moses-Prophet: Ten Commandments 2000
BCE – Laws
 Significant Writings-Torah and
Talmud Book of laws & beliefs, as well as
Old Testament of the Bible
 Places of Worship-Jews worship in
temples called synagogues
 One God who is the creator of all things
India
 2500BCE:
First cultivation of rice, cotton
and tea
 built ships, navigated seas, international
commerce (Indian Ocean & overland)
 well-planned towns, rectangular patterns
 Art -copper, bronze, and pottery, including
a large collection of terra-cotta toys
 two-storied and spacious, lined the town
streets; they had drainage systems that
led into brick-lined sewers
Ancient India
Social Class Structure:
Caste System:
Brahmana (priests),
Kshatriya (warriors),
Vaishya (traders and
agriculturists), and
Shudra (workers).
Person's occupation or Sanskrit:
writing system
group depended upon
birth
Ancient India - Religion
 HINDUISM:
polytheistic religion 3000
BCE
 Significant Writings-Vedas,
Upanishads, Ramayana,
Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita
 Oral 1st, Written in Sanskrit – history &
hymns, teachings of Hinduism
 spiritual oneness of the soul, atman
 soul obtains moksha or liberation
Hinduism
 Reincarnation:
karma you get what
you give new life
 Dharma: Duties of all
Hindu’s in their caste
 Supports rigid
social structure
Caste System
 Cow Sacred
Buddhism
 Founder-Siddhartha
Gautama
 Buddha, which means "enlightened one."
– he did not believe he was a god
 Dalai Lama:spiritual leader of Buddhism
 Four Noble Truths – beliefs – end
suffereing, end desire
 Eightfold Path: represents one of the
teachings of the Eightfold Path – right
thinking, speaking etc.
Buddhism
 Reincarnation:
karma you get what
you give, new life, continuous cycle of life
& death
 Rejected Caste
System
 Salvation possible in
this Lifetime

Nirvana spiritual
enlightenment
 Shang
Early China
Dynasty: 2000BCE system of
writing pictographs - drawings of
objects ideographs – thought or idea
 Oracle Bone early writing:
 Zhou Dynasty:
Mandate of Heaven
rise & fall of dynasties
 Qin Dynasty: Shi huangdi new technologies warfare, cavalry,
Legalism – you will obey orders!
Burned Confucian books
 Qin
Ancient China
China: standardized the
language and writing of China
 currency became standardized
circular copper coin
 Great Wall built
in north to
protect China
 Roads and
irrigation canals
built –Burned books
Classical China
Han China: Emperor Wudi: government
& economy, Golden Age of China
 Han scientists wrote textbooks from
zoology to botany and chemistry
 Astronomers accurate clocks &
calendars, Paper, wheelbarrow,
Acupuncture alleviate pain & herbal
remedies
 Silk Road: trade with the Roman Empire
and later empires east & west

Classical China
 Artists
and architects carvings in
jade, wood, or ivory, & the elaborate
temples
 Silk, Ceramics, lacquer and
Silk Road – 1st journey
bamboo wares
Chinese Compass
Chinese Philosophies
 Ancestor
worship
 Confucianism: social order and
mutual respect - 500 BCE
 Founder-Kong Fu Zi - Confucius
 Significant Writings-
The Analects - sayings
Chinese Philosophies - Confucianism

Five Relationships:
– Ruler to ruled.
– Father to son.
– Older brother to younger brother.
– Husband to wife.
– Friend to friend
 Jen-Human kindness should be shown
towards one another.
 Li-Proper etiquette should always be used,
and one should strive to achieve perfect
virtue.
 Filial Piety-One should respect their elders
Legacies of River Valleys
Expanded populations & urbanization
 New networks – roads & trade routes
lined, sea routes
 Established systems of government, laws,
& religion
 Established patterns of culture & cultural
diffusion
